Sunday, October 09, 2005

Ed Graney Makes Bochy Look Stupid

Unfortunately for Graney, that's a pretty big step up for Boch. His article can be found here.

Break up the Padres.

I fear he's peaked rather early.

No. Really. Please.

In Graney's mind, that's clever.

[snip some idiocy] It sounded nice for a few days, all that feel-good banter about the record not mattering and clean slates and how strange things sometimes occur in a short series. Nice and utterly ridiculous.

I agree. Having the odds stacked against you 3:2 like the Padres did is impossible to overcome.

[snip some more idiocy] [Kevin Towers] no longer must spend inning after inning praying for a Padres bat to mistakenly run into a pitch or closing his eyes when any fly ball ventures into left field.

The Padres were fifth of 16 in EQA in the NL. Also, Klesko had a Rate of 99, which is within one run over 100 games of average. If Graney wanted to pick on fielder, he probably should have started with Dave Roberts who happened to be awful in the field this year.

[snip some idiocy, a quote from KT, and a little more idiocy]It's about time base runners around here didn't resemble your parents during the church picnic's three-legged race. It's about time there are better athletes in the home team's outfield than the beer line. It's about time the offense does something more productive than walk.

I'll agree with Graney's general opinion with regard to the poor base-running. Some of that is the fault of the coaching staff as well as the players. Graney is correct that the team needs better outfielders (see Roberts, Dave). Something more productive than walk... What is it with the idiots in this town and their disgust with drawing walks? Any time you didn't make an out, you succeeded. Somebody explain how baseball works to Graney.

[snip a couple useless lines]There are three untouchable players on the roster – pitchers Jake Peavy and Scott Linebrink and shortstop Khalil Greene. After that, no one should be considering refinancing the mortgage.

I wouldn't want to get rid of them either, but the only one I would classify untouchable is Peavy. Linebrink has been outstanding, but if the right deal came along.... Khalil is still a below average player and despite his upside, he shouldn't be considered untouchable.

[snip some more useless crap, a couple quotes from Towers and Graney's predictions on who will be re-signed]Do the Padres take the $8 million or $9 million they would offer Giles and instead split it among a few players such as Minnesota's Jacque Jones and Florida's Juan Encarnacion? Do they again try to trade for Mike Cameron of the Mets or perhaps Juan Pierre of the Marlins?

It's worth noting that Jones and Encarnacion together aren't going to replace the production of Giles by himself. Look, here's a table:

Player

OBA

G

EQA

Rate2

OUT

EQRAA

NRAA

NRAA/G

POS

Brian Giles

0.44

158

0.326

99

380

49.8

30.52

0.305

RF

Jacque Jones

0.332

142

0.27

111

408

6.96

15.9

0.159

RF

Ryan Klesko

0.369

137

0.281

100

372

13.74

10.03

0.1

LF

Mike Cameron

0.341

76

0.285

94

215

9.56

6.58

0.066

RF

Juan Encarnacion

0.358

141

0.28

95

389

13.65

4.68

0.047

RF

Dave Roberts

0.374

115

0.284

88

310

13.2

-0.52

-0.005

CF

Juan Pierre

0.335

162

0.257

97

463

-2.28

-4.41

-0.044

CF

It'd be nice to have Jacque Jones in right, Giles in left and somebody not in that table in center.

Do they convince a team such as the Angels that Ryan Klesko could actually be productive as a designated hitter and then convince Klesko to take his pleasant demeanor, diminishing skills, no-trade clause and $10 million salary up the freeway in exchange for Steve Finley?

Yeah, that'd be a hell of a deal. Good thinking, Graney.

There is so much to do, so much to fix. Eighth among National League teams in average with runners in scoring position. Sixth in on-base percentage. Twelfth in batting average. Thirteenth in runs and home runs. Fifteenth in slugging percentage.

Has this guy never heard of negative park factors and small sample sizes, or is he just too stupid to understand the concepts?

[snip the rest of his crappy article]

Where does the UT find a guy like Graney? I'm guessing under a bridge.